USC? Unbelievably Sorted Car..

USC. Three little letters that spell out big things to any European petrolhead. As the acronym for Ultimate Street Car, USC has built itself something of an enviable reputation over the years – and rightly so. With almost 35,000 enthusiasts turning up to party, race, dance, pull, swap, buy, fettle and talk cods in equal measure.. it’s a very pleasant way to spend three days of your life.

This year’s event between the 6^th and 8^th of August didn’t fail to hit the spot and needless to say, your favourite wheel brand was there, wading in with our size 11s – and taking the whole place over.

Blame it on too many beers, but MD Kev had come up with the bright idea that we should mod a car live over the three days. ‘Take a standard scene classic… like a Fiesta ST,’ he slurred one evening at the bar.. ‘and hit it with everything live at the show!’ Seconds later he disappeared in a haze of tequila. We assumed that he was joking of course, and come the morning’s sober dawn, it would all be forgotten. He wasn’t… Arse!

What followed was a series of calls and mails to our chums in the trade. In-keeping within our ethos for the finer things in life, we only wanted to partner up with the most respected brands in the business, and I’m delighted to report and much pleading – and occasionally, mild threats to publish compromising pictures on the net – a plethora of utterly choice components were soon winging their way to Dotz HQ. It was like Christmas most mornings here, with first a choice set of Corbeau seats turning up, followed by Eibach springs, Powerflex bushes.. you name it!

The day before the show and a rented van saw this eclectic wish-list of mods whisked up the motorway to Santa Pod to be readied for the build. Never one to hide our light under a bushel, not only were we going to work in a fully branded build area, but the whole thing was going to be filmed for Eurosport and Motors TV, as a kind of ‘Pimp My Ride’ live.. with much better looking staff, obviously…

Believe it or not, our artisan for this build was the incredibly talented Paul Cooper; a man that makes the Williams pit crew look lethargic and a veritable mine of useless automotive information. He was confident that he could finish the build in the three days.. or he was until he missed the entire first day after getting held up in Cornwall. Double Arse!

Although we eventually got him started, time was always going to be an issue, and despite Kev’s best efforts to raise morale with some club-quality tunes, the stress levels were high from the outset! Luckily, our technical partner’s components fitted like an absolute dream, meaning that what we had lost on day one, Paul could claw back over the two days.

As well as the superb componentry going onto the Fezzer, Audio legends Huets were on hand to endow the Fiesta with an OEM+ bootbuild that gave it some decent bass to match its stance and new found pace. Building everything from scratch on site, their work was simply sublime. It didn’t half sound good too!

So what did we fit? Well, grab a cuppa.. and we’ll talk you through it!

Chassis duties were ably dispatched thanks to the superb fitment of the Eibach Pro-Kit. Lowering the car by around 30mm, but keeping the ride, this was a great touch and greatly assisted with a full set of Powerflex bushes.

Braking was tweaked with a set of Goodridge braided lines from our friends at the Performance Company, and then topped off with a full set of uprated disks and pads from Tarox. No guesses where the wheels came from. A set of our own Shuriken, wrapped in Cooper rubber.

Under the bonnet a Pipercross induction kit, Spec R tank and full Samco kit made a real difference, as did the Richbrook official Ford caps. Not to be outdone, A Scorpion half system extracted the gasses in a most tuneful manner, adding a few horses along the way.

Inside, Yet more Richbrook goodies lifted the interior.. and made it smell nice! A set of stunning Corbeau perches and Luke harnesses made the whole job much more comfortable – and safe, and with the Huets tunes ringing in our ears.. It was all looking and sounding the absolute business.

And when the whole job was done, we even washed up with Fast Orange hand cleaner.. Phew..!

The result, we hope you agree, is a car that looks better, goes better and showcases some of the best brands on the scene today. Although none of them pretend to be the cheapest, our advice after having to fit them all under great duress, is that they are all easily worth the extra. You get what you pay for, and the quality of these mods will stand the test of time. Our mantra all the way!!!

A massive thanks to everyone that helped, everybody that shouted encouragement along the way and of course, a ridiculously huge thank you to our build partners. We really couldn’t have done it without you!

Catch the build and the whole show in the TV show ‘Santa Pod Extravaganza’ on Motors TV.

It’s inspired us to do some similar videos in a time-lapse style. So what would be your favourite DOTZ wheel/car time lapse video (and we’ll try and make it happen!).